


He Will Laugh

by Bubbly_Kandy



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Batman 55, Dark, Dick gets shot, End of the World Imagery, Family Bonding, Hospitals, I think?, In Jason's POV, This is my 'fuck you' to DC, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 21:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16104389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubbly_Kandy/pseuds/Bubbly_Kandy
Summary: Jason had always thought that the end of the world will come with flames and screams.It's actually much, much worse.





	He Will Laugh

He often thinks of the end of the world. 

He wonders how it will come about. Will there be a way out? Will there be a place he can run to for protection? Or will he just have to stand and wait, watching as others die before it is his turn?

 He’s seen death before- he’s caused death before- he’s _experienced_ death before. But he, along with some of the people he’s killed- have come back. They’ve come back with bruises on their bodies and minds and had to fix bleeding hearts and eyes, but they’re _alive._

He sees his brother and sister birds- they fly through the air, only as blurs to the naked, untrained eye, equal parts beautiful and dangerous. Their father, a man who can turn into the shadows, watches over them, fighting with them but letting them take the spotlight on the stage of a rundown shack or darkened alleyway.

He remembers when he used to be a bird- he remembers the feeling of flying over his enemies heads, catching them off guard and using that to his advantage. He remembers his mind from back then- it was a simple black and white picture, the lines starkly drawn and bold.

The picture is blurry, now. He sees the littlest bird of their flock stab someone through the stomach, laughing as he flies off, leaving the body for the others to clean up. He sees himself shooting someone through the head, the guilt completely gone. He sees the oldest bird, one donning blue and black, shake his head sadly at the dead bodies but then assure them that, like everything else, _it’s for the best._

What line does ‘best’ draw? Where is the line where he and the littlest bird have to see their own gravestones? Where is the line when they have to watch a woman who was going to be their mother be put into the ground? Where is the line where the oldest bird is shot from the sky, leaving him to crash onto the cold, hard earth?

The shadows that are supposed to be his father never answer, no matter how much he asks. He screams and yells at the shadows, begging for _some_ reply, but he’s met with a cold glare and a colder demand to leave. He does so, the crackling fire of his anger building inside of his chest as he does.

He never knows that his replacement feels the same as him until he hears quiet crying from a hospital room. He sees the replacement and their brother, the older bird laying on a bed, looking as pale and lifeless as a corpse though the beeping heart monitor tries to convince them otherwise. 

He doesn’t say anything, but he sits beside his replacement, allowing him to cry. The littlest bird is gone- he hadn’t come to the hospital at all ever since they heard what had happened. He knows that this is a way for the littlest bird to grieve- he had heard screams of anger the night he stayed, trying to glue the nest together the best he could, but they could all feel the missing piece. 

The black bat is sitting quietly in the corner, but she scoots forwards and shushes the replacement, using all the comforting words she knew as she assured him _it’s alright, it’s alright._

 It isn’t right. He wants to scream at her that she’s lying, that the proof of her lies is right there in front of them, how _dare_ she say it’s alright? He bites the words back, watching as the replacement lifts his head up, his eyes puffy and red, his lip still shaking. He notices that neither one of them looks at the bed- they only look at each other, trying to soothe the others hurt.

 The black bat holds her arm out to him- she whispers _come,_ but he doesn’t. He stands and leaves the room, his heart feeling heavy and overworked as he hears his replacement begin to cry again.

 He cannot lose his composure- he’s reminded of this when the newest bird, one who names himself ‘Signal,’ asks him to spar, because it helps him distract himself and that the littlest bird is way too aggressive. The Signal laughs emptily, but he joins his laugh and accepts his offer. 

He beats Signal, but the newest part of their nest had put up a challenging fight. As he helps him up, Signal compliments him kindly, and he returns a compliment, Signal high-fiving him in a way that makes him feel just as young as Signal, but at the same time makes him feel older than their father.

He sees the littlest bird again, outside with his dog. He’s throwing a stick, but then he sits on the porch silently as his dog brings it back and sets it onto his lap. He leaves the littlest bird there, because he had seen his hand come up more than once to wipe his face off, despite the dog never once licking his face. 

He often thinks of the end of the world. He had always thought that that time would be the saddest time in his life, leaving him to beg for his life as the angel of death prepares to swing the scythe and to kill him again, this time for good.

 But now he knows. _This_ is what the end of the world feels like. The end of the world isn’t screaming and crying as you watch everything in your world crumble as the flames embrace it. It’s quiet dinners with a family that had never had a quiet dinner in their lives, it’s hearing quiet crying in the middle of the night, it’s fearing for what seems to be inevitable news when their father of shadows comes home from the hospital, having just spent an entire day there. 

He knows what the end of his world feels like, and it cannot be any worse than whatever the outside world has in store for when it decides to stop tormenting their family.

 He knows that, when the outside world decides to end in fire, he will stand up and laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Screw u DC
> 
> Please leave a kudos and maybe a comment if you enjoyed!


End file.
